Tracking Troubles--Upgrade or Setup?


Lately I've been bothered by what I think is poor tracking in my low-budget vinyl setup, and I'm concerned that I'm doing damage to my records. The problem is distortion at dynamic peaks. There was a thread on this a while ago, to which I contributed, because a lot of my used vinyl seems to be just plain worn and distorts at peaks because of (I presume) years of playing on somebody else's setup. My copy of Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue is particularly bad, and it kills me!

What I've noticed lately is that I'm getting faint distortion on new records, again at the peaks, and particularly as the cartridge tracks closer to the center. Really, I think this problem has always been there but I've listened past it--blessing and a curse, I'm listening more closely now.

My setup is a Technics SL-D2 with a Shure M97xE into a Cambridge 540P. The Shure's known for tracking well, has a new stylus, and I have paid a lot of attention to setup (level, protractor, tracking force gauge, test record), but I'm also a relative vinyl newbie and have had to learn all of it on my own--possibly something's off, and I don't know it. I want to enjoy my records for a long time, particularly those I'm shelling out new-vinyl prices for. Should I: setup from scratch; look into a new table/arm (used Rega P3 or Technics 1200); look into a new cartridge? How big a factor is the table/arm in tracking? Thanks in advance for all help.
ablang
The table is not a huge factor in tracking. Arm and cartridge are both critical, as are setup, stylus cleaning and LP cleaning. You've done the setup, but are your stylus and vinyl cleaning up to par?

Of course we haven't actually established that you're hearing physical mistracking, though you certainly could be.

One equally likely alternative is phono stage overload and distortion. This can and does sound EXACTLY like mistracking in all but the highest resolution systems. Try borrowing another phono stage. If the "mistracking" goes away, you'll have identified the true culprit.

Another possibility is pre-damaged vinyl, and even new vinyl is not immune from suspicion. I recently helped a fellow 'phile who also thought his rig (much costlier than yours) was mistracking. Turns out the brand new LP's he was having trouble with were just flawed vinyl. No rig in the world would have played them without extraneous noise.

Before launching into new components which may or may not help, why not listen to some suspect LP's on other people's rigs? Bring your phono stage along and see if that performs okay with another rig. Borrow a friend's phono stage and try it in your sytem. Do a little more investigation before spraying money around.
Thanks, Dougdeacon. Looks like I have a few things to try--and I appreciate it. I had wondered if I was hearing clipping, but I hadn't considered that the new LPs might be flawed. It'll be a relief if I don't have to throw money at the problem, or not much. Thanks again--and any other input still welcome.